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Africa: A Biography of the Continent
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Produktbeschreibungen
Amazon.com
"The ancestors of all humanity evolved in Africa," notes photojournalist John Reader at the beginning of this epic, panoramic overview of African history. From the formation of the continent to the present, Reader's informative narrative tells the story of the earliest dwellers and the natural obstacles of desert, jungle, and animals they faced, expertly entwining the development of humanity with the ecological and geographical evolution of the continent. He demonstrates how the physical makeup of Africa is like nowhere else on earth, both supporting and crippling human progress over time. Reader, who has lived and traveled in Africa for many years, explores the migration of humanity as early as 100,000 years ago out of Africa into Europe and South America, forming the earliest indigenous populations in these areas. At the same time he traces the effects of European settlers, slavery, and tribal warfare to the present day's independent states that have suffered through chronic disease, famine, and brutal conflict. Reader's passion for this continent is evident throughout the text, bringing to life his scrupulous research which explores in fascinating detail, the intricate and complex history of Africa. --Jeremy Storey
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
From Kirkus Reviews
A grand attempt to illuminate the history of the ``dark continent,'' using an almost stunning blend of disciplines from geology to anthropology to agronomy. Despite the breadth of the title, Reader (Missing Links, 1981, etc.) largely ignores Africa north of the Saharaa significant lacuna. Still, any attempt to cover billions of years of history (never mind 50-plus countries), will always result in gaps, elisions, and exclusions. One can quibble with his extremely detailed treatment of human evolutiona subject he has written about extensivelyor the relative short shrift he gives to modern African history, but it all comes down to a question of balance, and for the most part Reader does an admirable job of keeping his story rolling along. He begins right at the beginning with the formation of Earth and the primitive stirrings of life. Through an impressive mustering of scientific data, he recounts how changing conditions on the savanna opened a narrow niche that favored the evolution of hominids and eventually, through the relentless process of survival of the fittest, Homo sapiens. Reader is not so much a historian of dates and personalities, but of mass events and movements. He regards competition for resources, climatic shifts, geology and geography as infinitely more important in shaping history than any number of ``great men'' and their ideologies. For example, he sees slavery as a continent-wide catastrophe that drove everything from the rise of African kingdoms to the loss of the labor--and all that it could have created--of 11 million people, to the great South African diaspora that is usually attributed to the predations of Shaka Zulu. Once Africa entered the realm of formal, written history, the results have been almost unremittingly bleak. It's an old mantra, but the price of European civilization has been enormously high. And the postcolonial era hasn't been much better. That hairless hominid who spread out across the world has changed everything except his essential, animal self. Formidably researched, always readable, but necessarily incomplete. (55 b&w photos and maps) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
In diesem Buch
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Einleitungssatz
"Where Africa meets the ocean at its southernmost point, the sea has a tumbling, disorganized aspect, altogether lacking the orderly progression of swells that would seem proper where a large expanse of the south Atlantic first strikes land." Lesen Sie die erste Seite
Buchdeckel | Copyright | Inhaltsverzeichnis | Auszug | Stichwortverzeichnis
"Where Africa meets the ocean at its southernmost point, the sea has a tumbling, disorganized aspect, altogether lacking the orderly progression of swells that would seem proper where a large expanse of the south Atlantic first strikes land." Lesen Sie die erste Seite
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Buchdeckel | Copyright | Inhaltsverzeichnis | Auszug | Stichwortverzeichnis
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Kundenrezensionen
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1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
This book attempts to cover the breadth of a vast continent and the scope of human history, and generally succeeds. It was interesting and a bit surprising to learn how the environment affects and shapes societies. For example, there were not huge central cities in subSahara Africa because the economies were based on cattle -which dictated a nomadic life -- or on plants like plantains and bananas which can be grown in individual family acreage and don't require vast fields like wheat or corn. There is a great deal of information about the effects of the slave trade on Africa. The Zulu, for example, rose to prominence after their neighbors were decimated by slaving. Near the end, the reader learns how Germany set up concentration labor camps in Africa in 1905, a chilling foreshadowing of the Holocaust. An excellent book; dry at times as scholarly works are but extremely informative. I recommend it.
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Considering the magnitude of his undertaking, Mr Reader did a superb job of covering his subject in nearly every aspect possible. Almost anyone with an interest in geology, geography, anthropology, ancient and recent history, political science or ethnography will find this book of interest in some aspect. Personally I enjoyed the first half of the volume more than the last half, as the later chapters are a depressing compendium of the inhumanity of mankind to its brethern. The unfortunate effects of foreign involvement in African affairs has a long history, and Mr. Reader dealt with the subject fully and fairly; nor did he entirely absolve native African involvement in the down fall of some of its own cultures. The author seems to have a feel for the complexity of the events that occurred through time and of the reprocussions--the almost dominoe effect--of actions and decisions made, often times outside of Continental Africa itself. (A case of 20-20 hindsight, perhaps). In all a very readable book for anyone desiring a broad overview of Africa.
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Despite the fact that this book attempts to cover many parts of African history, it does so with a great deal of completeness. Reader never allows himself to lose the "big picture." A great book for anyone interested in learning about all of African history.
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outstanding history and writing
The author combined (1) exhaustive research, (2) analysis and sysnthesis of the information and data researched, and (3) a wonderful writing style to produce an extremely... Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 7. Februar 2000 von David H. Fowlkes
Sympathetic but not the usual cheerleading
Steve Sailer here:
Although sub-Saharan Africa was a topic of intense interest in the West during the 19th and early 20th Centuries, little of any value has been published about... Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 5. Januar 2000 von Steve Sailer
Required reading!
I picked this one purely on a whim, because I felt I hadn't learned a darn thing in my school years about the Continent of Africa. This book is a great starter to get you going. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 9. Dezember 1999 von "snackbar7"
Whatever idea you have of Africa, this book will change it
Is rare to find a book about history that is so gripping. The writer indeed does a wonderful job in keeping you amused and surprised. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 16. Oktober 1999 von Juan Carlos Uribe
Flawed, but best single book on Africa
Reader's is a journalist's (rather than a historian, geographer, or economist's) take on Africa, with all the pitfalls of that approach. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 11. September 1999 veröffentlicht
a book with epic sweep
I disagree with Mr. Milbratz! As strong as the whole of this wonderful book is, I thought the first 200 pages were the strongest, precisely because of their depersonalized, epic... Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 20. September 1998 veröffentlicht
Excellent: Intriguing and informative.
Here is a clear, concise, and extremely well-written book. A model, IMHO, of how authors should write history. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 24. August 1998 von whm
A Magnificent Work
This is a huge book, but unlike most others, I was sorry to see it end. This is due to Reader's intelligent and clear writing style. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 25. Juni 1998 veröffentlicht
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